Some Auckland Sheds

I visited the Claystore Community Workshop in Devonport a fortnight ago and was pleased to meet Tom Murray and George Crook from there. I appreciated that their “shed” has been ticking along under the same management for 29 years! (Tom Murray showing us the evidence  - a receipt book from when he joined and retired about the same time!). What an amazing feat Tom. I would think that could make the Aussie Men's Sheds seem like newbies! Amazing and a pleasure to see the great opportunities they provide for the Devonport and Takapuna communities. At that same meeting, I also met Ross McEwan (2nd from left) and team members from the Men’s Shed North Shore Trust who were also keen to make contact ahead of the construction of what will become a large purpose built Men’s Shed project on the North Shore, scheduled to begin hopefully before the end of the year.

New Shed info

New Zealand Sheds are progressing well

On the home front, I am pleased to hear of the recent launch of the Te Awamutu Community Men’s Shed in Te Awamutu on Saturday last and this excerpt from a contact in Oamaru stated “our formation meeting will be held on site at Te Mahi this Saturday at 2.00pm. You are all most welcome to come along! Over the past couple of weeks we have managed to get news articles into local media  and in addition approximately 30 posters have been distributed”. I wish the Oamaru shed every success and from other details in the email, it seems they have already received some tools and have community projects to undertake. All the best for 2011 Oamaru!

on deck again

Men's sheds are alive and well in New Zealand. 2011 has been a busy year and one of the highlights was attending the 4th National Australian Men's Shed Association's conference in Brisbane ( August 22-24) and Victoria Shed Crawl and Forum in Ballarat (August 25 -26) and sadly the only Kiwi delegate.

However, I will use this forum to disperse shed related bits and pieces that I have come across that may be of interest to other NZ sheds as we try and build on the 30-40 sheds in some form of startup or existence.